Favourite Poems JUNIOR CLASSICS for Children

The Owl and the Pussycat • The Pied Piper of Hamelin The Jumblies • My Shadow and many more

Read by Anton Lesser, Roy McMillan, Rachel Bavidge and others 1 The Lobster Quadrille Lewis Carroll, read by Katinka Wolf 1:58 2 The Walrus and the Carpenter Lewis Carroll, read by Anton Lesser 4:22 3 You Are Old, Father William Lewis Carroll, read by Roy McMillan 1:46 4 Humpty Dumpty’s Song Lewis Carroll, read by Richard Wilson 2:05 5 Jabberwocky Lewis Carroll, read by David Timson 1:33 6 Little Trotty Wagtail John Clare, read by Katinka Wolf 0:51 7 The Bogus-Boo James Reeves, read by Anton Lesser 1:17 8 A Tragedy in Rhyme Oliver Herford, read by Anton Lesser 2:25 9 A Guinea Pig Song Anonymous, read by Katinka Wolf 0:47 10 The Jumblies Edward Lear, read by Anton Lesser 4:06

2 11 The Owl and the Pussycat Edward Lear, read by Roy McMillan 1:35 12 Duck’s Ditty Kenneth Grahame, read by Katinka Wolf 0:40 13 There was an Old Man with a Beard Edward Lear, read by Roy McMillan 0:17 14 Old Meg John Keats, read by Anne Harvey 1:24 15 How Pleasant to Know Mr Lear Edward Lear, read by Roy McMillan 1:31 16 There was a naughty boy John Keats, read by Simon Russell Beale 0:35 17 At the Zoo William Makepeace Thackeray, read by Roy McMillan 0:29 18 Dahn the Plug’ole Anonymous, read by Anton Lesser 1:14 19 Henry King Hilaire Belloc, read by Katinka Wolf 0:47 20 Matilda Hilaire Belloc, read by Anne Harvey 2:35

3 21 The King’s Breakfast A.A. Milne, read by Anne Harvey 2:30 22 There was a little girl Anonymous, read by Rachel Bavidge 0:16 23 The Snail William Cowper, read by Katinka Wolf 1:09 24 Framed in a First-Storey Winder Anonymous, read by Anton Lesser 1:37 25 There was a man of double deed Anonymous, read by Katinka Wolf 0:46 26 The Comic Adventures of Old Mother Hubbard and Her Dog Sarah Catherine Marine, read by Rachel Bavidge 1:45 27 Colonel Fazackerly Charles Causley, read by Anton Lesser 2:17 28 Topsy-Turvey World William Brighty Rands, read by Rachel Bavidge 0:50 29 The Listeners Walter de la Mare, read by Anton Lesser 2:27 30 The Tyger William Blake, read by Timothy West 1:35

4 31 The Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens Anonymous, read by Anton Lesser 3:27 32 Bed in Summer Robert Louis Stevenson, read by Roy McMillan 0:40 33 Time to Rise Robert Louis Stevenson, read by Rachel Bavidge 0:15 34 My Shadow Robert Louis Stevenson, read by Roy McMillan 1:09 35 Wagtail and Baby Thomas Hardy, read by Simon Russell Beale 0:51 36 Two Little Kittens Anonymous, read by Rachel Bavidge 1:16 37 If Rudyard Kipling, read by Simon Russell Beale 2:16 38 Eletelephony Laura Richards, read by Rachel Bavidge 0:37 39 The Pied Piper of Hamelin Robert Browning, read by Anton Lesser 5:13 40 Into the street the Piper stepped… 5:41 41 The mayor was dumb, and the council stood… 5:14

Total Time: 74:29

5 Favourite Poems for Children Poetry has a special magic. Words are The stories that are being told are remarkable things anyway (they often often interesting enough in themselves have completely different meanings – like The Pied Piper of Hamelin, for depending on how they’re used, for instance, which is really quite a scary tale example) but with poems there are extra about kidnapping a village-full of children. ingredients. But something different happens Rhythm and rhyme – sometimes both when it gets turned into verse. You get together, sometimes on their own – are carried along by the rhythm, and your ear what make poetry. starts listening for the rhymes. And that’s It’s not just the fact that the lines don’t when the magic seems to happen. The reach the edge of the page (though that rhythm sets it up, and gives you a guide helps). It’s about how they sound in your to the style and feel of the poem. Take head and in your ear and, when you start the first lines of these two poems, for saying them yourself, in your mouth. example: Writers naturally hear the words themselves when they create the poems, The Listeners which is why they often sound so good ‘Is there anybody there?’ said the when they’re read out loud; and it is the Traveller, right rhythm and the best rhyme that Knocking on the moonlit door; makes their poems so funny, or weird, or And his horse in the silence champed touching, or sad, or dramatic, or whatever the grasses it is they are trying to create. Of the forest’s ferny floor:

6 Matilda almost before you realise why. The Matilda told such Dreadful Lies, immediacy of it, the speed of the rhythm It made one Gasp and Stretch one’s and that quick rhyme all work together Eyes; to create little punchlines. You know the Her Aunt, who, from her Earliest beat of the poem immediately, and you Youth, know there’s a rhyme coming any second, Had kept a Strict Regard for Truth, and the chances are it’ll be funny. Attempted to Believe Matilda: Rhyming ‘Matilda’ with ‘killed her’ The effort very nearly killed her, would probably get a laugh anyway, but when it’s added to the rather snooty- In the first one, the atmosphere is set up sounding Aunt, it’s not just funny but immediately with that opening question clever. You don’t expect to hear an and that rather mysterious ‘Traveller’ expression like that about someone who (where from? Where to?); and the fact ‘had kept a Strict Regard for Truth’ (Belloc that it’s at night makes it a bit eerie, too. uses capitals to make the point about how Then there’s the rhythm. It doesn’t Very Proper this Aunt is). All this makes allow you to just bounce through the the line even funnier, but it’s driven by words – you have to slow down a bit: the swift, short lines, and their rhythmic ‘And his horse in the silence champed effect. Then there is the rhyme. the grasses’ requires a little bit of careful There doesn’t seem to be any logic in mouth-work to say it. This adds to the the idea – after all, just because one word sense of drama in itself, as does the sounds like another it shouldn’t make information that it’s so quiet, you can hear any difference. But it does. The rhymes the horse munching the grass. Except it’s seem to connect the words somehow, in ‘champing’, not munching – munching a fashion that is not necessarily about the sounds too cheerful. Champing suggests meaning. discomfort, eagerness to get away. This has quite a few different effects. In the second poem, you’re laughing First is the expectation. Whether you like

7 it or not, if a poem has a strong rhythm which sticks in your mind the way a tune and rhyme, you will start to expect the does. rhyme word. What could he rhyme with Poetry also allows you to do things ‘Matilda’? that you can’t always do with other kinds Before you have a chance to run of writing. In The Tyger (which is just an through the options, you find out what it old-fashioned way of spelling ‘tiger’), the is; and the surprise and delight of it makes poet starts with: you laugh, especially because of the way it makes sense – not just that it has the same Tyger! tyger! burning bright noise as the first word. But somehow the In the forests of the night fact that it does, indeed, sound much the same as the first word adds to the pleasure What on earth does he mean? A of it. burning tiger in a forest at night... well, (Some poems deliberately don’t rhyme not quite. To start with, it’s a forest of the things exactly, because the writers know night, which is a strange but compelling that you can’t help expecting the rhyme; idea. Does the night have forests? Or is it and when it doesn’t happen, it can have a just that the night is dark and frightening, slightly unsettling effect). and then forests are also dark and Once you realise that there is a frightening, which means combining the connection, and expectation, then rhyme two would be so much more frightening has another neat trick. It makes things and dark. memorable. It seems to work the way And that ‘burning’ – he doesn’t really magnets do – one of them attracts the mean on fire, surely; so maybe it’s about other. So if you have a word like ‘door’, the extraordinary colours of the tiger’s your mind seems to find it much easier skin, those oranges and blacks, being like to remember that the word ‘floor’ is on flames; and bright flames, too, despite the way. This makes filling in the bits in the extra layers of darkness. Whether or between easier, too; as does the rhythm, not the image makes logical sense, it’s

8 fascinating, powerful and pretty much something wonderful with you whenever unforgettable. See whether you can ever you want it? look at a tiger again without thinking of it. Notes by Roy McMillan With powerful images, extraordinary ideas, humour, drama, rhythms, rhymes, expectations and all kinds of other tricks (alliteration, assonance, paradox, opposition – there are loads – you’ll have to look them up in a dictionary if you don’t know them already), poetry works hard to get into your head and stay there. It does this just the way that music does, creating hooks and links and ideas and pictures that stay with you forever. Poems are relatively easy to learn – you know the lyrics to most of your favourite songs, after all. What’s more, if you take a little time to learn the ones you like, you’ll never be stuck trying to remember that funny bit when you tell your friends (which can be really annoying). You can have something you know is well-written to hand whenever it’s needed (the next time you see an elephant in a telephone box, you’ll have just the thing). But most importantly, there are wonderful poems; why not have

9 One of Britain’s leading classical actors, Anton Lesser has worked extensively at the National Theatre, and is an associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His many television appearances include roles in The Cherry Orchard, King Lear, The Politician’s Wife, Vanity Fair, Perfect Strangers, and Dickens. Films in which he has appeared include Charlotte Gray, Fairytale – A True Story, Imagining Argentina, River Queen and Miss Potter. He is a familiar voice on radio, and has become particularly associated with his award-winning readings of Dickens and Milton for Naxos AudioBooks.

Roy McMillan is a director, writer, actor and abridger. For Naxos Audiobooks he has read The Body Snatcher and Other Stories, Bulldog Drummond, The French Revolution – In a Nutshell and the introductions to works by Nietzsche and the Ancient Greeks. He has directed readings of Hardy, Hopkins, Kipling, Milton and Blake; Austen, Murakami, Conrad and Bulgakov, among many others; and has written podcasts and sleevenotes, as well as biographies of Milton and Poe. He has also directed plays for Radio 3 and Radio 4.

Rachel Bavidge was born in North Shields in Tyneside and moved to Oxford in her early teens. She has narrated numerous audiobooks and has completed six months as a member of the BBC Radio Drama Company. Her theatre credits include Mrs Boyle in Whose Life is it Anyway? (West End) and Margaret in Much Ado About Nothing (Theatre Royal, Bath), both directed by Peter Hall. Her television credits include The Bill, Casualty, Doctors, The IT Crowd, Inspector Lynley, Wire in the Blood and Bad Girls. She has also read the part of Marion Halcombe in The Woman in White and featured on The Great Poets: Barrett Browning and Rossetti for Naxos AudioBooks.

10 Katinka Wolf trained at the Drama Studio, London and was part of the Stalhouderij Company, Amsterdam, where she appeared in numerous productions of classical and modern plays. She is a well-known figure in fringe theatre having taken a variety of roles in both classical and modern drama, including The Duchess of Malfi in the West End. She has appeared on British television and is the voice of Anne Frank at the Anne Frank Museum, Amsterdam. She has also read The Scarlet Letter for Naxos AudioBooks.

Richard Wilson’s portrayal of Victor Meldrew in One Foot in the Grave has won him numerous awards including the British Comedy Awards Top Television Comedy Actor Award and two Light Entertainment BAFTA Awards. In 1994 he was awarded the OBE for services to drama as a director and actor. He is the visiting professor for Drama at Glasgow University, and has honorary degrees from both Glasgow University and the University of Caledonia. He is an associate director of the Royal Court Theatre.

David Timson has made over 1,000 broadcasts for BBC Radio Drama. For Naxos AudioBooks he wrote The History of the Theatre, which won an award for most original production from the Spoken Word Publishers Association in 2001. He has also directed for Naxos AudioBooks four Shakespeare plays, including King Richard III (with Kenneth Branagh), which won Best Drama Award from the SWPA in 2001. In 2002 he won the Audio of the Year Award for his reading of A Study in Scarlet. He reads the entire Sherlock Holmes canon for Naxos AudioBooks.

11 Anne Harvey is a poet, anthologist, adjudicator and broadcaster well- known for her poetry readings both on stage and radio.

Simon Russell Beale is one of Britain’s leading classical actors. He won Best Actor in the Evening Standard Awards for his individual interpretation of Hamlet, and his Ariel in The Tempest was marked by an Olivier Award. Among his many other staring roles in London theatre was Candide and Mosca in Volpone. He has a busy career in TV and film too, with appearances in Branagh’s production of Hamlet and in the outstanding TV dramatisation of Persuasion. For Naxos AudioBooks he has also recorded The Life of Oscar Wilde, Great Speeches and Soliloquies of Shakespeare and William Shakespeare – A Biography.

Timothy West’s numerous London stage performances began in 1959 with the farce Caught Napping. He has appeared with the National, Royal Shakespeare Company and Prospect Theatre companies playing, among others, King Lear, Prospero, Shylock and Macbeth. Among his many TV appearances are: Edward VII, Beecham, Brass and Churchill and the Generals. His films includeEver After, Joan of Arc and Villa of Roses. In 1984 he was awarded a CBE for his services to the profession. He also read the part of Chorus in Henry V for Naxos AudioBooks.

12 The music on this recording is taken from the NAXOS catalogue

SATIE PIANO WORKS, VOL. 3 8.550698 Klara Kormendi, piano

PIANO MUSIC FOR CHILDREN 8.550885 Idil Biret, piano

BEETHOVEN BAGATELLES AND DANCES, VOL. 3 8.553799 Jenó´ Jandó, piano

RIMSKY-KORSAKOV SHEHERAZADE/THE TALE OF TSAR SALTAN 8.550726 Philharmonia Orchestra; David Nolan, violin; Enrique Batiz, conductor

Music programming by Mike Shah

Credits

Produced by Jan Fielden, Nicolas Soames and Roy McMillan Compiled by Mike Shah

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. UNAUTHORISED PUBLIC PERFORMANCE, BROADCASTING AND COPYING OF THESE COMPACT DISCS PROHIBITED.

Cover image courtesy of Dreamstime.com

13 Other works on Naxos AudioBooks

The Jungle Books Just So Stories (Kipling) ISBN: 9789626340356 (Kipling) ISBN: 9789626342503 Read by Madhav Sharma Read by Geoffrey Palmer

Kidnapped Treasure Island (Stevenson) ISBN: 9789626341179 (Stevenson) ISBN: 9789626341018 Read by John Sessions Read by Jasper Britton

14 For a complete catalogue and details of how to order other Naxos AudioBooks titles please contact:

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order online at www.naxosaudiobooks.com

15 Other works on Naxos AudioBooks

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland Through the Looking-Glass (Carroll) ISBN: 9789626343845 and What Alice Found There Read by David Horovitch with Jo Wyatt (Carroll) ISBN: 9789626344200 and full cast Read by David Horovitch with Jo Wyatt and full cast

Sparky’s Magic Piano Classic Fairy Stories and Other Children’s Favourites (Various) ISBN: 9789626342220 (Various) ISBN: 9789626342794 Read by Bernard Cribbins Read by various artists www.naxosaudiobooks.com p 2010 Naxos AudioBooks Ltd. © 2010 Naxos AudioBooks Ltd. Made in the Germany.

Favourite Poems JUNIOR Total time CLASSICS 74:29 for Children UNABRIDGED SELECTIONS The Owl and the Pussycat • The Pied Piper of Hamelin NA0013D The Jumblies • My Shadow • The Lobster Quadrille Eletelephony • The Listeners and many more CD ISBN: 978-184-379-423-3 Read by Anton Lesser, Roy McMillan, Rachel Bavidge, Katinka Wolf, Richard Wilson, David Timson, Anne Harvey, Simon Russell Beale and Timothy West

Dance with a lobster, telephone an elephant or knock on a moonlit door –this collection includes magical, macabre, dramatic, funny, bizarre, absurd, delightful, moving and charming poems by Lewis Carroll, A.A. Milne, Edward Lear, Hilaire Belloc, Kenneth Grahame and many others. Readers such as Anton Lesser, Simon Russell-Beale and Timothy West bring the lines beautifully to life and make this an ideal introduction to some of the best-loved children’s poetry.

View our catalogue online at www.naxosaudiobooks.com